State hasn't put a prisoner to death in 4 years. A new drug could change that, but it's in short supply, too.

4:26 AM,
Oct. 23, 2013

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Written by

Brian Haas
| The Tennessean

Tennessee's barely functioning death penalty is on the verge of revival after state officials finally settled on a new lethal injection drug and scheduled a man to die for the first time in more than a year.

But the state's new method is already running into trouble in other states, thanks to new problems acquiring drugs for executions.

The state hasn't had any drugs to perform lethal injections since its supply of sodium thiopental was seized by federal law enforcement agencies in April 2011 over questions about how it was obtained. It hasn't put anyone to death in nearly four years and hadn't ...